“Success has nothing to do with Potential”

I heard those words above and it stopped me in my track. It had me thinking. Wait a minute, “success has nothing to do with potential” I repeated this and then I had to agree. But before I agreed I had to recalibrate my thinking quick and in that moment I realised that along the way of life, without giving it a thought I realised I equated having potential with eventually being successful.

Maybe I was slow or a little bit too optimistic or even foolish to think like this, but there you are. However, I thought about it some more, then, I remembered someone I knew who had so much potential. He had so much of it that it was oozing out of him everywhere until that potential choked him or he choked it. But either he never moved beyond having that potential and after a while, no one could see it because he had lost it from ill-use and no use. When that happened everyone who initially cheered him and wished him well and waited for that potential to manifest set aside their banners, silenced their cheers and just disappeared. And could we blame them after all? What is the use of having a constant parade for someone who has nothing to celebrate – just the possibility? And who can take a possibility to the bank or leave it as a legacy? What was even worse was that over time having lost hold of that potential he was relegated to outer darkness, lost, to himself and everyone else.

So, it is true, potential does not equal success to have it mean something you have to do something and then do something and again do something. You have to water and nurture that potential at any and all times, in the face of any and everything. Don’t just have potential, make it work for you.